10 Travel Apps You Can’t Live Without

Your mobile phone becomes your best friend when travelling long term. It acts as a camera, entertainment, navigation and most importantly your link to the people you love. There are a bunch of great travel apps out there that can enhance your travelling experience and help you find your way. From the best apps for flights to the top apps app for travel expenses, free travel apps for iPhone and travel apps for Android. Here at the 10 best apps for travel. All of them I literally couldn’t live without. And the best thing about them is that most of them are free!

1. maps.me

Maps.me is one of my favourite free travel apps. It’s a totally offline version of Google Maps that you download to your phone. Which means you can download the next city you’re about to arrive in and have directions to your hostel on hand as soon as you get off the bus or plane. It’s especially handy for solo female travellers to make sure your cab driver is taking you to the right place. You can also star important places like your hostel or the airport in order to find them more quickly.

2. Rome2Rio

Rome2Rio is an extremely helpful app for travel planning. It gives you advice on all the methods of transport between cities and countries and their cost. Then further to that links to book each of them. It’s an excellent way to save time and money when you’re trying to decide between plane, train or automobile and is the best trip planning app available.

3. booking.com and hostel world

Booking.com and Hostelworld are quick and handy booking sites in the palm of your hand. You can compare hotels and hostels based on filters like price and rating. Having them in app form makes booking so much easier when you’re in countries with shotty internet. Overall I’ve found the Booking.com prices to be cheaper. So I usually use both to research the hostels and then I make the booking through Booking.com. You also don’t need to pay a deposit, which is great. There’s a reason these are among the best travel apps.

4. Instagram

If you didn’t ‘gram it, did it even happen? But seriously. Instagram is a fabulous way to share your travels with the people at home all while making them jealous at the same time. I also use it to research things to do in cities and get a feel for potential restaurants to eat at. This is secretly one of the best apps for travel.

5. google translate

Traveling a country where you can’t speak the language? Google Translate is an absolute god send and one of the best free travel apps. Google Translate now also has basic offline functionality which means you have access to key words in a large number of different languages from anywhere. To set up Offline Mode, click on the language you want to translate from then tap the arrow next to it. SpanishDict is also a great app for Spanish speaking countries and includes extra sections for conjugation.

6. Netflix

The ability to watch Netflix offline has absolutely changed my life and has made it one of the best apps for travel out there. Bus trips are now a pleasure with hours of footage available with a few clicks. And while yes there is a small monthly fee, I would argue it’s well worth it for all those long and boring hours in transit you’re definitely going to face.

7. kindle

I’ve included Kindle in my list of best travel apps because you don’t actually need to have a Kindle to use the app. Which many people aren’t aware of. You can use the app on any of Apple’s devices and I’d assume across a number of Android devices as well. The Kindle app is much better than using iBooks as it allows you more control over the lightening of the screen. Making it much easier to read. It’s definitely one of the top free travel apps for iPad.

8. Skyscanner and kiwi

After much trial and error, Skyscanner and Kiwi have become my two favourite travel apps for flights. As they both cover a large spread of different airlines they are best when used together. And Kiwi’s radius search is awesome for when you’re flexible on where you’re either departing or arriving. It allows you to select a region on a map, rather than having to put in an actual location. Whenever I book my flights I always research flights across both of these and then book directly through the airline as this is usually how you get the best price. They are definitely the best travel planning apps when booking flights.

9. TRAIL WALLET budgeting app

Trail Wallet is definitely the top app for travel expenses on the market and one of the best apps for travel available. It’s really simple and quick to use and works offline. You set yourself a daily budget to track your expenses against. And then add each expense as you make it. It’s all done in about 3 clicks. It also automatically converts your spending across all the different currencies you might be using at a rate you set or the current online rate. Your first 25 items lodged are free and after that, it’s a one-time $5 USD fee to track unlimited items.

10. uber

While most of you probably use Uber all the time at home, one thing I didn’t realise was how handy and even necessary it would be when travelling. Most of the larger cities in South America support Uber and it’s a much cheaper option for getting around. It’s also a must in some of the dodgier cities where the cab drivers can be pretty untrustworthy. The fact that you can see the drivers stats and reviews is really comforting. In fact, we were told by many people to only use Uber in Rio and Mexico City and to never take a cab. So when in doubt whip out your Uber. Trust me it’s one of the best apps for travel. I’ve also found a handy article on how to improve your Uber rating and why you need to. Check it out!

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About Me

At 29 I decided to quit my awesome job in digital marketing to travel the world. With a cool $30K in my pocket I set off on my adventure. Hoping for it to last at least a year. Since then I’ve learnt alot about budgeting – mostly when to scrimp and which times you MUST spend in order to make the most of your experience.